Funny how car maintenance works

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by dsaundry

Ok I will put my 2 bucks in.
I own an automotive repair shop and yes some of the prices you got seem high, some are not. The transfer case service does seem quite high and without a detailed report on what they do when they service the transfer case and differential fluids next time I would check around. As for the fluid types, full synthetics are quite expensive compared to regular oils, As for some of the advise about what to get done, your manual is a pretty good guide in most cases, however you can go to any warranty approved shop and get the services done there, The average dealership here is about $120.00 per hour and the average shop is about $90.00 per hour, so you save some there. As for the coolant flush I agree to go green, the north american manufacturers seem to have a problem developing gaskets that stand up to the degredation of the long-life coolant. Green is better and there are animal friendly versions out now as well. Tune-ups are a word of the past, there is only scheduled maintenance now. Spark plugs from a lot of manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers are rated at well over 120,000km, but on higher milage cars I wouldnt put a long-life plug in. A regular v-groove actually works better. A bad oxygen senseor will screw up a motor real quick{sorry asmodeus} I have seen that firsthand, but the pcv price seems high too. Depends on what motor you have as far as labour goes, some spark plugs a real pain to get at and pull. Jeeps included. Try doing plugs in a newer Ford with a Triton motor in under 2 hours. Bottom line is if you feel you got hosed find another shop, ask around. There are a lot of good honest shops out there as well.
Ok just to stir the pot even more, A coolant flush would definately be recommended at 50k It deteriorates too quickly,not to flush the coolant can screw up a heater core. Pcv valves are important! 75/140 is about $20 perlitre. Mark up on parts is not where shops make their money, to the heavy duty mechanic. Try paying out insurance for your buildings, payroll tax's, Insurance for the techs, benefits, etc etc etc, and I hate to say this but you are all lucky the dealerships and private shops arent charging $200.00 plus per hour...By the way..its coming, The "Mechanic" has taken a bad rap for a lot of years, not all deserved, now that vehicles are changing to computerized modular systems you need to study a lot just to work on them, let alone the equipment to work on them. Nobody seems to have a problem giving a lawyer $200-500 dollars an hour, but look out if the shop charges you $200-500 to do your brakes. As for my qualifications I am inter-provincially licenced, a master tech and I get a lot of vehicles towed to my shop that a lot of back yard wannabe techs try to fix themselves. I go to courses every year just to keep up to date on the advances[good+bad] that are coming out. So do I think I am worth less per hour than any lawyer...or anybody else..Nope.

Thank-you for sharing. I welcome the advice. I knew the dealership was going to cost more but I trusted the dealership to do it right, which I think/hope they did. As for the work they did it was listed in the manual as needing to be done and that's why I got the work done. My boyfriend does the regular oil changes so I didn't have them do that, but everything else that was listed (Minor tune up and spark plugs, Transfer case, Transmission service and PCV valve) I had them do. On the plus side they didn't try to tell me that this that and the other thing needed to be done as well, and they didn't do anything I didn't want done.

FYI This is the details on the transfer case that they gave me:
Transfer case svc. tech(s):3811 $371.54

Complaint: Check transfer case fluid; advise if service is required
Use sythetic oil if required; advise if full 4x4 service required
Do not perform before advising please (which they did)

Cause: Dirty driveline fluids

Correction: Performed 4x4 service, used synthetic fluids

Description
Sealer 01-081-003 $6.94
75W140 01-081-020 $110.37
Lube 01-081-090 $31.14
Multipurp 01-081-02 Internal

Total labor and parts $519.99

Any ideas as to what it all means? Thanks for the advice I appreciate it. I thought maybe they replaced the transfer case, and I was under the impression that whatever they did it needed to be done at 50,000km.

And this is the response from balistidae:
It looks to me like they changed out ALL driveline fluids (Front diff, tcase and rear diff). And judging by the sealer charge it most likely means the rear diff had to be split to be serviced which is where the labor charge would have come from.
Although it was a pricey service I doubt they were ripping you off. All of those items are set menu pricing generally and full synthetic fluids are quite expensive.

As for how much you get paid an hour, I'm just jealous! I'd love to make $90/hr